Shameful shades of laws in Arizona

Arizona’s immigration law authorizes police to demand to see “an alien registration document” – a green card, passport or state driver’s license – for anyone police suspect of being in the country illegally.

What objective criteria would police use to identify suspects who might be in the country illegally? Looks? Language? Literacy?

Anything I can imagine reeks of racial profiling, which is shameful and will discredit this country.

South Africa’s Pass Laws required black South Africans to carry passes; failure to produce a pass upon police demand often resulted in arrests and imprisonment.

Is this where America, my country of birth, is heading?

The next time I visit family in Arizona, I’ll refuse to carry or show any ID. If asked for proof of citizenship, I’ll demand to know by what objective criteria I’m classified as “suspicious.”

I hang my head in shame and disgust, as we become the land of the fear and the home of the cowards.

17 comments

While I am sympathetic to the plight of illegal aliens, the fact remains that they are ILLEGAL…the Federal Government has fallen down on its job to protect the CITIZENS of THIS country…Where is the Border Fence that was funded by Congress? If they had done what they were supposed to do, then we would not be having this discussion now…I have no problem with immigrants as we are a nation of immigrants, but come here Legally! Hang your head in shame if you want, but I am one American who is Proud that one of our sister states has finally stood up to the Feds and said “enough is enough”

You do that! I understand that Joe’s Tent City is especially nice this time of year. While you’re at it, why don’t you refuse to file your income taxes, show ID at the bank or at the DMV when renewing your licence, may as well cancel your automobile insurance as well….That law has always been a pain.

Unfortunately, most people do not understand the purpose or internt
of this law. This law is put into place to stop the killing and maiming of our
law enforcement officers and citizens by illegal aliens.
This law is only about public safety, not profiling or taking rights away from anyone.
We in AZ have waited for years for the Feds to help us with this horrendous
illegal immigration problem, to no avail.
Now, our governor and legislators have stepped forward as brave and
concerned citizens and officials, saying, enough is enough!
We must have safe streets, we must have safe homes, we must have
safe workplaces.

I must say that I and many others are with Arizonas new law, this country needs all the help it can get to keep illegal’s entering America. we don’t know where these criminals come from for all we know there may be some from Afghanistan carrying weapons of mass destruction and turning America into another Iraq, I fear that IUD’s may be under our roads in major cities and go off durring rush hour traffic creating a nightmare worse than 9/11. people in
Seattle are boycotting Seattle because the city councle there voted to boycott Arizona’s law, 90% of the comments in komonews.net are against the city councle vote, and Portland Ore mayor the dummie he is also wants to boycott Arizons ‘s law. this law is needed and a wall the entire leingth of the border with Mexico is needed and manned 24/7 with armed personnel, this is America and that being said don’t cave into these mindless boycotters. this our country and it must remain so at all costs.

There is little doubt this country needs a new immigration reform, but there is no doubt the anti immigration law your governor promoted is a shame for Arizona.
It will also have strong negative economic consequences for your State. Many organizations and companies are canceling their meetings and conferences.
I was going to take my group of friends and kids to the Grand Canyon this summer (21 people coming from New York), but after the law was approved, I decided to boycott your State and bring everyone to Montana instead.
I am sure people are going to think twice before coming (not to mention the foreign tourists, who certainly won’t feel welcome)
Does anyone remember America was (and still is) built by immigrants, whether legal or illegal?

“Does anyone remember America was (and still is) built by immigrants, whether legal or illegal?”

Whoa, how long have U been here new yorker? Not long enough to have read our American history re: FEDERAL and state laws for LEGAL immigration.

America has not/is NOT “built” by illegal aliens. Immigrants who legally went thru process to become citizens, yes, illegal aliens– No. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Legal immigrants came here thru Ellis Island and went thru the lawful process to become American. This process includes medical testing (vital!) to keep contagious diseases from spreading throughout our country. Nothing but common sense attached to this process for any, all immigrants.

Are people THAT ignorant? Seems sadly so. Illegal alien is not an immigrant, no matter how hard the unlearned try to squeeze those square pegs into round holes.

We Americans who’ve been here for centuries, who come from legal, hardworking immigrant families have had enough of unlearned, uneducated & ignorant mindsets “programmed” to foolishly feel they are owed everything the rest of us Americans have worked hard to get.

I thought Hitler died years ago, but apparently he has been reincarnated as Jan Brewer the present Governor of Arizona, and I beginning to think he has a twin in Georgia named Sonny Perdue. Just what the hell are you people trying to do to this country. Next thing we know you’ll want to kick out the Native American population. Get a damned life and let people live in peace like God intended. Or maybe you all think you are GOD, but know that he can do things you never thought possible.

Get a grip. The police are professionals and know what they are doing. They are not going to go around asking for papers. You have to have legal contact to begin with. Not to worry, you will not be dragged out of baskin robbins just for eating ice cream like BO tried to say.

Wow, I can’t believe how ignorant some of these comments are. I’ve been in Arizona for over 40 years. Born and raised; Mexican-American, 5th generation. My great-great Grandmother and Grandfather were born here when Arizona was Mexico. It has only been like 120 yrs since the SW was Mexico. So yes, we too have been here for CENTURIES…!!! The biggest problem I have with this bill is that it has brought out all kinds of CLOSET RACIST …! It’s sad…! I speak Spanish and English very well. I am proud of being American and being Mexican-American. Now days, I can’t even speak Spanish without some DUMMASSS YELLING “ENGLISH” “FFFFForget you…!” IT’S CALLED FREEDOM OF SPEECH…!!!!! In any language. This bill is making the average person into so called Immigration Agents…! We are going backwards!!! What year is this 1960???? I always carry ID! PEOPLE THE POINT IS THIS: WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO BE BOTHERED AND QUESTIONED ABOUT MY CITIZENSHIP OVER “WHITES” ?????? GET IT…!!!! THAT IS RACIAL PROFILING AND IT IS ILLEGAL…!!!! Yes, I am worried that I will be harassed because I look Mexican. GET IT…~!~!~!!!!!!! That is the problem. I am American and in many cases have been here A LOT LONGER THAN MOST OF YOU MAKING MESSED UP COMMENTS…!!!! The notion that I can be stopped for “reasonable suspicion”. WhatEVER THAT MEANS…!!! ?? Because I look Latino…!!!!!! It’s sad…!!! It should be noted that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office is under Federal Investigation for racial profiling already…!!!!! WHAT IS AZ THINKING? Remember people, GOD SEES US…! Let’s try to be good and open our hearts…!

“Elena” and “”New yorker, comparing the people of Arizona to Hitler is childish and untrue.
You are not in a border state and you believe the goop that makes the TV news. People here have family that emigrated from Mexico, to become Americans. They are not likely to “profile” their own people. We don’t want to stop immigration, just invasion.
The people flooding across our borders now do not want to be Americans. They are importing their drug culture and caste system and using our laws and our respect for life as a weapon against us.
If they succeed then the Southwest could become what Mexico still is, a place where education is given only to those who can pay for it, where there are just the rich and the peons and where the police are so corrupt that they are the first suspects when a crime is committed. They only help those who can pay.
Take a look at the news from Mexico, the exploited women and children, the unsolved murders and rapes, and the rampant “Machismo” that keeps them unsolved.
I lived in Mexico for a while. The Mexican people are kind, funny and they love their children, but their attitude about the things that Americans hold dear is daunting. “Class” is a definition of who you are and who you can become. Their family law is based on the Napoleonic Code, which gives women no property rights and children are the exclusive property of the father.
There is no Bill Of Rights in Mexico. You can be arrested and held for however long the police see fit. Foreigners can have their papers taken for any or no reason. You have to either know “someone” or pay to get them back. Foreign born people cannot become citizens of Mexico nor can they own property or take a job that can be filled by a Mexican. Only work that a Mexican Citizen is not qualified for can be done by non citizens; usually artistic or technical work.
Going through the process to become a citizen of the United States shows that an immigrant wants to be American. Jumping the border shows the opposite. No respect for the laws of our country or for it’s government, and no wish to embrace our culture. The process educates the immigrant to our Constitution and our Bill Of Rights, the border jumper does not get that education. What they learn about our laws is how to break them.
What do you want, a population that respects and protects the United States and it’s values or a population that maintains the status-quo of the country they come from and makes slave labor out of the poor and the children?

Does anyone know what the term “illegal” means? I gusee we should be able to pick and choose what laws we ant to obey. I understand Australia has some tough imigration laws, so where do you get off about my country and our laws? I guess ignorance is bliss, so I won’t say your stupid, just IGNORANT!Stay in Australia please!

I am deeply puzzled by the references to Nazis and Fascists. Those groups reclassified people to get rid of them. Legal immigrant or citizen Hispanics are not being reclassfied by the Arizona government as illegal and then murdered. What disturbs me, and makes me wonder about whether even legal Hispanic immigrants/citizens care more about America than they do about being Hispanic is that nearly (not all, but nearly all) every post I see that uses the word Nazi comes from a Hispanic. Either they are light on historical instruction on exactly what the Nazis and Fascists did and stood for (which is rather awful since that information is readily available and ought to be studied to avoid a further Holocaust), or they really don’t care–it’s just a scary word to intimidate others so they get what they want–power. Calling people Nazis is a dreadful thing to do, which is why many Jewsih organizations are appalled at its use in this way. Hispanics and Nazis actually behave quite similarly: self-aggrandizement of their ethnic group (most of it invented), refusal to listen to other ethnic groups who deny wrongdoing (eg Nazis said the Jews were anti-Germany. The Jews protested this and showed proof it was not true. The Nazis ignored this, called them horrible names as the Hispanics call anyone approving SB 1070 horrible names); deliberate, continual use of propaganda and rhetorical techniques to gain power over others; a rankling anger at having lost a war and the sense of inferiority that comes with that, and so reinventing their history and claiming a glorious, falsified past and invented identity (Aryan for the Nazis and ‘indigenous’ for Hispanics. Scholarship is quite clear that that claim is false)–identities and histories that make them the ‘good guys’ and ‘rightful citizens’ and everyone else (especially, to the Nazis, the Jews) the ‘bad guys’ and ‘interlopers’. Frightening.

As Fed suit against Arizona regarding recently legislated Arizona illegal immigrant law is already sub-judice, therefore all the matters (including identification and keeping the track of illegal immigrants in USA) will be taken care of by the judiciary. Because when ever there is an injury (which obviously is there to USA including to Arizona & other especially border States, by illegal immigrants) there has to be a remedy and without remedy there is no law and it is hoped that US judiciary will uphold this basic tenet of jurisprudence.

But merely leaving this matter to judiciary will not solve the basic problem and for this Americans ought to do the following in view of given below:-

(1)- The main reason for thus-far failure of US policy to address the problem of illegal immigrants in USA from Mexico is that (i)- USA so far has been trying to put entire burden (like fencing, increased and high tech border patrolling, e-Verification, anti-illegal-immigrant laws etc) for the solution of this problem on USA only, while leaving offending country Mexico un-burdened. (ii)- USA is not taking ‘Rule of law’, ‘Sovereignty’ and ‘Human Rights’ with requisite utmost seriousness.

(2)- Therefore USA (Fed and all the concerned State Governments in pursuant to legally expected judicial order in said sub-judice case) after identifying and keeping the track of these illegal immigrants and after ensuring better border security should immediately demand from Mexico to take their citizens back in order to put reciprocal burden on Mexico too.

(3)- In case Mexico refuses to do so then USA should (i)- Demand commensurate territory from Mexico to sustain these illegal immigrants on US soil (ii)- In deference to human rights, grant amnesty / legal status to all these illegal immigrants by due process of law by imposing reasonable fine on these illegal immigrants.

(4)- In case Mexico refuses to part this much territory then USA should, in a time-bound program, take this commensurate territory, militarily from Mexico.

(5)- Alternatively if USA considers it better then, USA should demand equitable exclusive mineral rights from Mexico in lieu of sustaining these Mexicans on American soil.

Whether Americans like it or not but this Fed-AZ dispute, apart from having serious implications on American national domestic life, has global ramifications too for USA. Because the destiny has put the onus of providing leadership for the process of planting globalization all over the world on USA and without offering an example of upholding and defending (i)- Rule of Law (ii)- Sovereignty and (iii)- Human Rights, the Americans have hardly any chance of succeeding in this historic & extremely rewarding mission. Therefore Americans have no other choice than to think & act big (as mentioned above) in on-going Fed-AZ dispute.